Pokemon Viridus
by DiGi C
Summary: New trainers start off their pokemon journey in the small town of Viridus.
1. A Surprise at the Festival!

**Pokemon Viridus – Chapter 1  
A Surprise at the Festival!**

The tweens of Viridus Town were very excited on the morning of Ostara, for every year this holiday became the opportunity for many of them to receive their first pokemon during the Ostara festival and begin their very own pokemon adventure. The festival was always held in the town square, and this year would be no different. In one of the many town stores that stood along the town square, two girls, Amber and Miri, were walking around the aisles that were neatly showing off the newest pokemon dolls. Miri had stars in her eyes as she gazed at the Chansey dolls sitting on their shelf. She reached out her hands and touched them longingly. Beside her, Amber kept looking out of the window onto the growing amount of people gathering at the square.

"Miri... I think we should go, everybody seems to be gathering at the square now." Amber prodded her friend, but Miri simply ignored her concerns and continued to gaze at the dolls.

The store clerk suddenly appeared next to them, "I'm afraid that we will be closing the store now, so you girls need to leave."

Miri's face tightened into a frown, "Why are you closing this early?"

"The festival is going to start in about fifteen minutes, and we wouldn't want our customers to miss out on it, especially you girls! Will this be your first time getting pokemon? It will be my young son's first time, too."

Miri smiled and she and Amber both nodded, "Well, we'd best be going now."

They both left the store and did their best squirming their way through the crowd of town people. At the center of the square was a risen stage made of wood. That was where every year, Professor Mahogony and his team of researchers would give away one pokemon to all the town children who were of age to receive one. This year Amber and Miri would get their chance to get a pokemon of their own.

The girls were somehow lucky enough to push their way through to the very front of the crowd, right in front of the stage. There was a band playing folk music already on the stage, and Amber gasped delightedly when she spotted Professor Mahogony and a few other researchers on one end of the stage. The professor was instructing them as the two researchers each pulled onto the stage a medium sized brown potato sack onto the center of the stage.

"We better not be getting potatos instead of pokemon..." Miri laughed.

The girls waited patiently as the professor and his team talked with some other festival organizers on stage while waiting for the right time to start the festival. Finally, the band on stage stopped playing music and the professor and her team took their place next to the potato sacks sitting on a table at the center of the stage. The host of the festival, an elderly man with a black, formal suit and purple tie, took a microphone and began to speak to the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! People of Viridus Town! I am pleased to announce the beginning of Viridus Town's annual Ostara Festival!"

The crowd began to cheer and clap, as did Amber and Miri. They watched as the host gave the microphone to Professor Mahogany, and she began to address the crowd, "I know you do not wish to wait any longer, so, we will begin calling up all our new, young trainers to receive their very first pokemon!"

The crowd cheered again, this time it was mainly the young one's who cheered as they were very eager to get their pokemon. They quieted down on Professor Mahogony's signal, and listened to what else she had to say.

"We will begin by calling everybody's name, one at a time, and they will have to come up here onto the stage and pick one bag to choose a pokeball from. So, we will begin now," she said, pulling out a folded piece of paper from her lab coat pocket and unfolding it, "with our first name, and that is... Ms. Marianne Albeck!"

Amber and Miri watched as one of their own friends was called up onto the stage to receive her first pokemon.

"They are calling out names alphabetically..." Miri said matter-of-factely. Amber nodded and watched as Marianne dug her hand deep into the right side bag and pulled out a pokeball, her face beaming with pride. She then pressed the middle button on the pokeball, making it expand, then quickly pressed it again to have the pokemon inside it revealed. The pokeball opened in a bright flash of light that bounced from inside the pokeball and onto the stage. After a few seconds, the light disappeared and in its place an aipom appeared. Amber and Miri clapped along with the rest of the crowd as Marianne greeted her new friend and she and the Aipom went off the stage.

"Congratulations on your new aipom, Marianne!" Professor Mahogony cheered, "Next up, we have... Justin Hubbard!"

As the blonde boy made his way through the crowd and onto the stage, the crowd cheered slightly, but Amber and Miri did not cheer at all. Justin was the meanest, snobbiest boy in town, and as they watched him grin all the way across the stage, they secretly hoped he recieved an undesirable pokemon for his liking. Justin reached shallowly into the bag and seemed to have chosen the first pokeball his fingers touched. He took the ball out of the bag and held it high in front of him for the whole crowd to see, then pushed the button on the middle to release the pokemon inside. As the flash of light cleared, a human-like figure formed.

"Alright!" Justin exclaimed, as his new tyrogue jabbed at the air to try and improve his entrance. Amber sighed and Miri tapped her shoulder, "What is that thing?" Miri whispered. Amber replied, "A tyrogue... it's a fighting type pokemon, you know, the one that can evolve into hitmonchan, hitmonlee, or hitmontop?"

"Oh..." Miri murmered trying to sound as if she understood.

Both girls continued to watch and occasionally cheer for the other kids who went up on stage, until they called out Rose Jensen's name. Amber had always tried to be friends with Rose, but Rose was so competitive that it was nearly impossibly to like her from one day to the next. She almost held her breath as Rose walked up to the middle of the stage and took her time to select a pokeball. Finally, after a couple minutes, and with coaxing from Professor Mahogony's impatient foot tapping, Rose selected a pokeball and took it out of the bag. She pushed the button in the middle and it burst with light...

Amber let out a laugh, "A weedle?!"

From the stage, Rose heard Amber's comment and glared at her, "We'll see what great of a pokemon you get, Amber!"

Amber turned a little red when she realized Rose had heard her and quickly stopped her laughter. After Rose got off the stage, Professor Mahogony looked at her list again. "Next up, we have... Miss Miriel Oberst!"

Amber quickly cheered and turned to Miri as she gave a big grin and began to make her way onto the stage. Miri nervously held her arms to her sides until she reached the nearest bag, but before she reached in, she looked at Amber for a moment. Amber nodded for her to continue. With a deep breath, Miri closed her eyes and turned her body half away from the bag, only leaving one arm inside the bag. After circling around the bag for a few seconds, she selected a pokeball and took it out. Miri looked at her selection and hoped it had been a good one. She pushed the button on its center and was blinded slightly by the light. When the light faded, a tiny, round brown pokemon seemed to stand on one foot right next to Miri. It looked up at Miri with big round, red eyes and gave a hoot. "Hoothoot!" It said, and Miri smiled in glee.

Amber and the rest of the crowd cheered as Miri took her new hoothoot in her arms and carried it back into the crowd.

"Wow, what a cutie!" Amber said as Miri took her place next to her. The hoothoot smiled and wiggled a bit in Miri's arms. "Yeah," Miri agreed, "I didnt think my first pokemon would be so cute!"

A couple more kids were called up after Miri, then finally, Amber heard her own name called and her heart skipped a beat. "Go Amber! That's you!" She heard Miri exclaim, and she felt Miri push her towards the stage. Amber composed herself and tried to stay calm, regardless of the butterflies she was getting in her stomach. She bravely walked up onto the stage, but her nerves blocked out the cheering of the crowd and the smiling faces of the researchers beside Professor Mahogony. Her mind was intently focused on the brown potato sack nearest to her. Her hand quivered as she neared the bag. She sunk her hand in deep into it and moved around the pokeballs before she decided on one that she thought felt right. She pulled it out, her heart racing at a million miles an hour. When she got it out, she stood looking at it for a few seconds and hoped her pokemon would be a good companion. Holding her breath, she pushed the middle button and watched the flash of light form into a pokemon.

At first, she thought her pokemon might be an ekans, as its body was curved in that form. But then she noticed it was a little more plumper than an ekans, and remained clueless on what it was until the light finally cleared off completely. The crowd, as well as Amber, gave a gasp of surprise. The whole town seemed to have gone silent as they stared at Amber's pokemon. Even Professor Mohagony and her team seemed confused. The professor took a step toward the pokemon in amazement, "A... a dratini? But how?"

Amber couldn't believe her luck. Her first pokemon was incredibly rare! She broke out into a grin as the crowd broke into the loudest cheer of the entire festival.

"Well..." the professor said, smiling at Amber, "You are one lucky trainer! You better take good care of this dratini!"

"Oh, I will! Don't worry about that!" Amber grinned back, and after petting her new pokemon and giving it a hug, she safely returned it to its pokeball and left the stage to stand next to an amazed Miri and watched the rest of the festival and the remaining kids get their pokemon.

_To be continued..._


	2. A Weedle Defeat!

**Pokemon Viridus - Chapter 2  
A Weedle Defeat!**

The Ostara festival was finally over and the crowd that had once surrounded the wooden stage had long dispersed. The sun had begun to set, and the fading sunlight had cast a beautiful, eerie purple glow in the sky. Amber and Miri had begun to walk back towards Miri's house along one of the few dirt roads in their town. There were small homes close together on each side of the road. As they walked, they noticed that a group of their fellow townspeople had gathered in the front yard of the house that belonged to popular queen bee Samantha Raynor. They saw Samantha chatting with her little clan of wannabe bees Kristen and Julia. Samantha was crouched down near the ground with a red brush in her hand, grooming her new vulpix.

"Wow, Samantha got a vulpix…" Amber said aloud softly, yet audibly. She felt a pang of desire and envy, for vulpix had always been one of her favorite pokemon.

"Yeah, seems that way," Miri replied with little interest, "and Kristen got a venonat and Julia got a wailmer."

"Hmm, figures... she's a bit of a whale herself…" Amber muttered. Miri quickly looked over to see if the group had heard Amber's comment, but it only seemed that they heard her voice and not the insult she had made. She breathed a sigh of relief. She was not looking to get into a fight with those girls soon. As she and Amber reached the front of Samantha's house, they heard a familiar yet pesky voice call to Miri.

"Hey Miri! What pokemon did you get? Come over here and we can show each other what we got!" Rose twittered and emerged from another group of kids on the yard. The pink-haired, pigtailed, spectacle wearing, colorfully clad young girl came over to the edge of the house's white fence, "Hurry, come over!"

Not wanting to seem rude, Miri motioned to Amber and they both walked over to where Rose was.

"I asked for Miri to come over, not you Amber…" Rose huffed. "The only way we're letting _you_ into the party is if you agree to battle me right here, right now, because I didn't forget that little comment you made during the festival!"

At the word battle, all the people in the yard suddenly hushed and stared with curiosity at Rose and Amber. Amber felt embarrassment creeping up on her again as she did not like being the center of attention. Not really sure what to say, she tried her best to get out of embarrassing herself more, "We're supposed to be celebrating right now, not fighting…"

A few of the boys standing nearby started to chant, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Pretty soon, most of the other kids were chanting along with them. Rose seemed triumphant, although a battle had not yet occurred. Amber hated knowing that the little snob was enjoying putting her under so much pressure. She looked around at all of the faces, most of them with big dumb smiles of excitement on their faces, the others with anticipation on which way this would be resolved. She knew they all wanted to see a battle, after all, who wouldn't be itching to try out their new pokemon? Rose had always found ways to act nice to her one minute, and the next turn completely against her and try and humiliate her. Well this time, Amber thought to herself, Rose was not going to have her little prissy way. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out her pokeball, pressing its button to have it expand. A whir of voices started to resonate amongst the others and the crowd that had begun to form seemed to take a step back in defense.

But Rose did not retrieve her own pokeball right away. She unlatched the gate door and stepped out onto the road, Amber having to follow. Once they were both in the middle of the road facing each other, Rose took out her pokeball, pressed its button, and tossed it into the air, "Weedle, go!"

The crowd of onlookers sprinted to the edge of the fence and some even stepped out onto the road to get the best view of the match. A few started to cheer and even more started to root for Rose, much to Amber's annoyance.

"Seems like your fanclub didn't show up…" Rose smirked, "Let's see what you and your pokemon can do."

Amber pressed the center button on her pokeball and tossed it out in front of her, "Go, Dratini!"

Both pokemon now stood facing each other. Rose's weedle had a determined expression on its face, while Amber's dratini had cocked its head slightly to the side and was looking at weedle with much curiosity. At one point it seemed to be smiling at the weedle.

"Weedle, use string shot!" Rose commanded. Immediately, Weedle lifted itself slightly and shot a sticky web-like material from its mouth onto Dratini.

"Dratini, dodge it!" Amber said, but the command came too late and Dratini was covered with the sticky attack. It reared its head from side to side, frantically trying to get the web off, but it was useless. "Dratini, try a wrap attack!"

"Weedle, poison sting attack!" Weedle wasted no time launching itself head first into Dratini's soft skin before Dratini could even recover enough to attack. Dratini let out a cry of pain and was knocked over to the ground by Weedle's force. "Again, weedle! Poison sting attack!" Rose cried, and Weedle once more launched itself at Dratini, piercing its skin with the point on its head. Despite Ambers efforts to have Dratini dodge, Dratini did not seem to be able to recover from the string shot attack and was hit with Weedle's stings. Fearing that Dratini could be severely hurt, despite Weedle's small size, Amber tasted bitterness on her tongue as she called out a forfeit.

Rose broke into a triumphant grin, "Weedle, return!" She called back her pokemon and stood with both hands on her hips, watching Amber attend to her injured pokemon. "So who's laughing now, huh?" Rose asked, breaking into laughter herself. She turned and went back into the yard, leaving Amber and Dratini on the road. The crowd stood by and watched, but eventually all returned to talking amongst themselves.

"Amber! Oh my goodness…" Miri said with sadness in her voice. A second person voiced concern behind Miri. "Amber, you'd better take your dratini to Professor Mahogony's lab and let her take care of it for you." Brendan, a close friend of theirs, bent down next to Amber and touched Dratini's head sympathetically. Amber looked at him and nodded.

Luckily, the lab was not too far away. Amber carried Dratini in her arms, resting its head against her shoulder. They walked up the cobbled path to the lab and went inside. Amber recognized two of the researchers from earlier at the festival. They both looked at them when they came in, "Did Professor Mahogony ask for you to come by? Trainers are not allowed in here unless they have the professor's permission beforehand." One of them said.

"Please, I need to see the professor right away. My dratini needs attention." Amber pleaded. Just then, Professor Mahogony emerged from another room carrying a clipboard and a flask of peculiar clear liquid. She noticed Amber and her friends and smiled, "Well, hello, what brings you to the lab?"

The blonde haired researcher responded, "This girl says her dratini is hurt and wants us to care for it."

"Oh dear," the professor said, looking at Dratini, "What happened?"

"Well, we got into a battle, against a weedle. I think she's been poisoned." Amber said.

Professor Mahogony went over to a counter and put down her flask and clipboard, then turned back to Amber, "Alright, bring your dratini into the backroom. I have just the antidote. You will need to leave it here overnight, but don't worry, it will be in good hands."

After leaving Dratini at the lab, Amber, Brendan, and Miri left the lab. They stood outside for a while talking until finally it was almost getting too dark for them to see each other, "I'd better be going home. Are you guys excited to finally be leaving Viridus town and exploring the world?" Brendan asked.

Amber tried to be enthusiastic, but she was still worried about her pokemon, "Yes, I haven't thought about much else all week! Hopefully, Dratini recovers in time. I'll come by the lab early tomorrow morning."

"I'll meet you here then, and we can leave together." Miri smiled, putting a hand on Amber's shoulder. Amber gave her a grateful smile and nodded. "Well, we'd all better go home now," Miri said with a yawn. "Bye guys, good luck for tomorrow!"

_To be continued…_


End file.
